Want to receive this post in your inbox every morning? Sign up for the Balance of Power newsletter, and follow Bloomberg Politics on Twitter and Facebook for more. President Donald Trump has a message for the Arab world’s feuding monarchies: It’s time to cool your jets.
Trump called Qatari ruler Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday, after the buzzing of two Emirati passenger planes by Qatari fighter jets. While Qatar denies it happened, the incident prompted a whipsaw of accusations and spooked investors, who briefly dumped Qatari assets on concerns of military escalation.
The president’s latest intervention, in which he praised Qatar for its efforts to fight terrorism, marks a shift from June, when Trump sided with Saudi Arabia in a spat that’s now in its seventh month and threatens to spark broader conflict in the region.
Complicating matters is the case of a Qatari royal who claimed on YouTube he’s being held in the U. against his will, a charge that was also denied. Saudi Arabia once courted the Sheikh and the U. media touted him as a possible replacement for Al Thani, whom they accuse of supporting terrorism in the region. officials, enough is enough — they say the standoff is distracting from the main threat to the region: Iran.
Global Headlines
Immigration showdown | Republican congressional leaders are struggling to separate Trump’s immigration blowup from negotiations to avert a government shutdown at week’s end. Democrats say the onus is on the president to help break the stalemate after he rejected a bipartisan proposal to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation and ignited outrage by reportedly disparaging Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries.”
FBI exposed? | With Trump and a small group of Republican congressmen intent on trying to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian meddling probe, Chris Strohm and Greg Farrell explore whether the Justice Department’s decision to grant lawmakers new access to documents about FBI investigations risks exposing sensitive sources or material.
Brexit redo? | The possibility of a second British referendum on leaving the European Union is a top question after Nigel Farage, one of the champions of Brexit, said (somewhat provocatively) that it might just be a good idea. The prospect was dangled in Brussels, where the divorce is seen as a colossal mistake the U. can still avoid. There’s no real traction for that yet in Westminster, but the seed has been planted.
Compromise candidate | As Italy potentially heads for a divided parliament, polls indicate stand-in Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni may actually represent the kind of stability voters are craving. If neither a grand coalition of the governing Democrats nor Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia can form a government, he may end up staying on as leader — despite a 35 percent approval rating.Nuclear winter | Norway’s wealth fund, the world’s largest, dumped four companies involved in making nuclear weapons and excluded others based on human rights concerns as the $1.1 trillion investor steps up its of how corporations behave. The fund takes into account ethical rules also encompassing corruption, the environment, coal and tobacco when deciding on its investments. The world’s best-known autocrats — from North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro — are playing the latest investment craze: cryptocurrencies. These currencies offer states a covert way to fund all sorts of mischief, from financing armed rebel groups to smuggling cash. But even Bitcoin`s huge gains are not yet not enough to ward off the sharp bite of U.-led economic sanctions.
— With assistance by Kathleen Hunter, and Karl Maier.
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